By: Julia Burleson and Leila Sullivan
Be part of us at 1pm ET on February 13 for a digital dialogue on how state policymakers can higher help cellular well being clinics and enhance entry to care. Register right here.
A whole lot of rural hospitals throughout the nation are working on skinny margins, and up to date federal coverage proposals threaten to exacerbate that pressure. Provisions in H.R. 1 are projected to scale back federal funding to hospitals and different suppliers by greater than $1 trillion, placing many rural services vulnerable to service reductions or closure. In an try to mitigate a few of these challenges, H.R. 1 established the Rural Well being Transformation Program (RHTP), allocating $10 billion yearly over 5 years to help states in modernizing rural well being care infrastructure, increasing entry to care, and bettering affected person outcomes.
To entry this funding, states submitted purposes to the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies (CMS) describing how they meant to make use of RHTP funds. The RHTP Discover of Funding Alternative explicitly recognized cellular well being as an allowable use of funds to help inhabitants well being infrastructure, rural well being networks, and distant (non-clinic) care providers. Given this steerage and our current literature assessment documenting the effectiveness of cellular well being supply in increasing entry to rural areas, we reviewed state RHTP purposes to establish whether or not and the way states are planning to include cellular well being into their rural supply programs.
We discovered that as many as 42 states included cellular well being of their purposes. With awards introduced for all states in late December 2025, states are in a important pre-implementation section. Early selections about how cellular well being initiatives are designed, financed, and built-in may form their long-term effectiveness in increasing entry and strengthening rural well being care supply.
Effectiveness of Cell Well being in Enhancing Rural Well being Care Entry
Our analysis signifies that cellular well being fashions can increase entry to care in rural communities by reaching populations dealing with geographic and broadband obstacles. Cell well being care can enhance preventive care, help continual illness administration, and hyperlink sufferers to follow-up care. As an example, a program in rural Minnesota launched a mobile-telehealth hybrid mannequin, permitting sufferers to keep away from 30–60 mile journeys for main care.
Sufferers often report excessive satisfaction with the comfort and high quality of cellular well being providers in rural areas. Some packages are additionally related to diminished emergency division use and potential system-level price efficiencies. For instance, a rural South Carolina group paramedicine program helped sufferers decrease their blood stress and blood glucose ranges whereas additionally lowering emergency division visits.
The sustainability of cellular well being packages usually is dependent upon secure funding, sturdy group partnerships, and referral networks that permit cellular providers to behave as a gateway to extra care. In rural Tennessee, a cellular well being program stationed the car alongside a group psychological well being heart on sure days to offer main look after sufferers receiving psychological well being care. This system additionally used telehealth to attach rural sufferers with specialty suppliers and was planning to maintain operations by billing for providers. These findings present a helpful lens for understanding the number of cellular well being initiatives proposed in RHTP purposes and the way states envision them supporting broader rural well being methods.
Cell Well being in RHTP Purposes
State RHTP purposes provide perception into how states intend to deploy cellular well being and spotlight areas the place extra operational planning could also be wanted. Throughout RHTP undertaking narratives, 42 states proposed cellular well being initiatives throughout eight fashions outlined by service-type: Main care (together with maternal care), imaginative and prescient, dental, psychological well being and medicine for opioid use dysfunction (MH/MOUD), mammography, stroke response, behavioral well being disaster response, and group paramedicine/cellular built-in well being (CP/MIH). Whereas some states included plans to help a number of cellular well being fashions of their purposes, others targeted on single fashions comparable to main care or behavioral well being. Desk 1 summarizes the cellular well being fashions proposed in RHTP purposes.
Though cellular well being appeared in most purposes, states diversified significantly within the stage of element they offered about how funds could be used to help implementation. Most states provided generalized descriptions of the providers cellular packages would offer, with out detailing the operational and monetary concerns required for sustainability. In distinction, just a few states described concrete plans, comparable to constructing telehealth infrastructure into cellular models, growing the agricultural workforce by way of hands-on coaching experiences for college kids, integrating cellular models with current well being programs, and establishing billing infrastructure to help monetary sustainability. This distinction issues. States hoping to combine cellular well being into rural supply programs should interact in important operational and monetary planning to efficiently transfer from idea to implementation.
Desk 1: Abstract of Cell Well being Fashions in RHTP Purposes
| Cell Well being Fashions | Variety of States | States |
| Main Care | 22 | AL, AZ, AR, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IA, MA, MN, MT, NH, ND, OR, PA, RI, UT, VA, WA, WI |
| CP/MIH | 20 | AK, CT, FL, IN, IA, KS, MD, MA, MO, NH, NM, OH, RI, TN, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI |
| MH/MOUD | 18 | AK, AZ, AR, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, MI, NH, NC, ND, OR, RI, UT, VT, WA, WI |
| Dental | 15 | AK, CT, DE, FL, GA, KY, MN, NH, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, VT, WI |
| Behavioral Well being Disaster Response | 12 | AZ, CT, ID, KY, MD, MI, NC, OH, SD, TN, WA, WI |
| Most cancers Screening | 10 | AL, DE, FL, GA, ID, KS, MD, MN, NC, ND |
| Stroke Response | 1 | FL |
| Imaginative and prescient | 1 | OH |
| Unspecified | 9 | CO, LA, ME, MT, NV, NJ, ND, TX, WV |
Supply: Writer’s Evaluation
Spotlighting Standout Cell Well being Initiatives
Throughout the three states highlighted under, a number of frequent themes emerge: Every program integrates cellular care into current rural well being programs moderately than treating it as a standalone, grant-dependent service. All three leverage Medicaid, Medicare, and industrial reimbursement to help ongoing operations and emphasize workforce growth to make sure cellular groups can ship care successfully. Telehealth connections and referral networks are additionally generally included to hyperlink cellular providers to broader well being programs, creating continuity of care and increasing entry for sufferers in rural communities.
Arizona focuses on relieving pressure on rural hospitals and emergency departments. Cell clinics and group paramedics present preventive, diagnostic, maternal, continual illness, and bodily rehabilitation providers immediately in rural and Tribal areas. By integrating cellular providers into current hospitals and Federally Certified Well being Facilities (FQHCs) and counting on reimbursement from insurers, Arizona expects to scale back avoidable emergency division visits and hospitalizations. Workforce growth and coordinated care additional improve effectivity and long-term sustainability.
Arizona’s RHTP software and press launch.
Florida emphasizes telehealth integration and group paramedicine. Cell models present preventive screenings, diagnostic providers, prenatal care, and rehabilitation, whereas group paramedics ship in-home follow-up and continual illness administration. These providers are linked by way of telehealth hubs and the Florida Well being Info Alternate, permitting sufferers to entry specialists and preserve continuity of care. Touring models go to faculties, senior facilities, and group hubs, with paramedics supporting care outdoors conventional services.
Florida’s RHTP software, web site, and press launch.
Minnesota stands out for its integration with Tribal well being organizations and its give attention to dental and first care. Cell medical and dental models present preventive screenings, fundamental main care, restorative dental providers, and lab work, whereas telehealth hyperlinks sufferers to specialty care. The state additionally positions cellular models as extensions of FQHCs and group clinics, embedding care inside current referral networks and utilizing group websites comparable to faculties for service supply and workforce coaching.
Minnesota’s RHTP software and press launch.
Trying Ahead
Traditionally, cellular well being has usually functioned as a peripheral or grant-dependent intervention moderately than as a core element of well being care supply. The RHTP presents a chance to raise cellular well being from an advert hoc resolution to a longtime element inside rural well being programs. Realizing this potential would require considerate integration of cellular providers into current supply and fee buildings, together with sturdy pathways for monetary sustainability. Many states plan to make use of cellular well being providers, and looking out on the approaches highlighted within the state examples can provide worthwhile steerage on the right way to embed cellular care into rural supply programs whereas supporting long-term monetary stability. If states use the present pre-implementation interval as a planning runway for these structural adjustments, the RHTP may assist solidify cellular well being as a long-lasting and worthwhile element of rural well being care supply and the broader well being system.
The authors are analysis college on the Heart on Well being Insurance coverage Reforms at Georgetown College’s McCourt Faculty of Public Coverage. Their time and analysis associated to this text was supported by a grant from the Leon Lowenstein Basis.